Larry Cohen Explains Why We Need Filibuster Reform

January 18, 2013

Bill Moyers

On this week’s Moyers & Company (check local listings), Larry Cohen, president of the 700,000-member Communications Workers of America, joins Bill to make the case for common-sense filibuster reform that would bring the Senate back to serving democracy. Cohen is a leader of the Democracy Initiative, a coalition of nearly 50 progressive organizations campaigning hard to change the filibuster rules — not to deny a minority the right to be heard, but to hold senators accountable by bringing back the requirement that they show up in person and talk in plain sight, so we can know who’s holding democracy hostage.

But time is not on their side. Unless the Senate reforms the filibuster on Tuesday, the minority wrecking crew remains in charge for the next two years.

Watch two show previews below.

“We think our members and working people in this country and most Americans would say it’s fair: people get elected, at some point the majority should rule,” Cohen tells Bill. “That’s the way it is in every other democracy in the world.”

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About Bill Moyers

Bill D. Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the Johnson administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years.